The owners of a haulage firm (a father and son) have both been given 11 years in prison following an incident in which one of their drivers fell asleep at the wheel of his 39 tonne lorry. The driver had been required to drive for longer than the legally permitted number of hours in the 24 hours leading up to the crash and the owners were convicted for manslaughter . The Court heard that the driver was almost certainly asleep at the time of the collision having been working for 19 hours when his 39-tonne lorry crashed into stationary traffic on the southbound carriageway of the M1 between Luton and Dunstable on 12 February 2010. Traffic ahead of him had come to a standstill because of congestion but, despite braking hard at the last minute, Mr Kenyon crashed into the lorry in front of him. The cab of his vehicle was crushed and he sustained head and chest injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene, at 2.26am. Tachographs in his vehicle showed he had been at work since 5am the previous day, had covered 592 miles and been driving for more than 13 hours. Under road-haulage legislation, commercial lorries can only be driven for a maximum of ten hours in a 24-hour period, and then only two days a week. The CPS investigation also highlighted issues with payment of tax and the CPS commented "This negligent approach to the running of their business was further demonstrated when they failed to pay tax on more than £5m worth of income over a four year period. Everything about this case indicates that the business owners prioritised making personal profits for themselves over the safety of their drivers or other road users.”